


How Not to be a Dick

by whitchry9



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ableism, Blind Character, Disability, Friendship, Gen, Humour, foggy is a good friend, preventing dickishness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 08:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4256067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitchry9/pseuds/whitchry9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Foggy lectures the Avengers on how to be more inclusive for Matt with a helpful powerpoint entitled 'How Not to be a Dick'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> To fill a prompt which can be found here: http://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/2760.html?thread=5269192#cmt5269192
> 
> Also perfectly coincides with disability fest!  
> http://disabilityfest.tumblr.com/
> 
> This fic is also set in a different universe than any of my other fics, so they're not related whatsoever. (I'd like to think that the Avengers would be slightly more understanding and less dickish.)

They were seated in a conference room. The table alone was incredibly intimidating.

Foggy had been confident going in, but now, with all the giant expensive chairs and important faces staring back at him, he was a bit nervous. He tapped his fingers on the podium.

 

Pepper had set them up with a laptop and a projector, and Claire was sitting at the side of the room to work the slides. (It was her day off. She only came because of the promise of meeting the Avengers and getting back at the people who had kind of been dicks to Matt. She had been getting most of his complaining, since he didn't like telling Foggy.)

The first slide was sitting up on the screen, and the various Avengers were staring at it.

 

Foggy swallowed hard.

 

 

“Okay Claire, next slide please.”

 

 

Steve raised his hand, like he was a child in a classroom. Foggy kind of thought it was adorable.

“Yeah?”

“Who let you in here?”

“Pepper Potts.”

Tony groaned. “Of course she did.”

“Did Matt say something? Is he unhappy about working with us?”

“Did you read the thing? Matt would never say anything. But I'm his best friend, so I've kind of picked up on things. And he tells Claire things. And she tells me things. Next slide.”

 

 

“He is a natural with children,” Thor agreed.

“And annoyingly smart,” Tony chimed in.

Steve looked surprised. “Matt is Catholic?”

“Yep. Born and raised.”

Clint made an understanding noise. “I get it now why he crashed my tractor.”

Foggy frowned. “Why did you have a tractor in New York?”

“Oh, this was in Iowa.”

Foggy made a note to himself to ask Matt when the hell he was in Iowa.

“Right. Bottom line, he is blind. Completely. No light perception. A lot of people who are legally blind still have some sight. Whether they have no peripheral vision, or they're only able to identify shapes, a lot of them can still see something. Matt can't. His pupils don't react to light either, which might come up at some point, since he tends to get hurt a lot. Any questions?”

“Yeah, why hasn't he said anything about the touchscreens I give him? I could easily make them more accessible if he'd mentioned something.”

“He's too stubborn for his own good,” Foggy told Tony. “Doesn't want to show any weakness, blah blah. He brings them home and I help him set them up. And just so you know, your accessibility options on the StarkPads aren't that great.”

“Jarvis, set up focus groups. At least a dozen, and we can go from there.”

“Understood sir.”

Foggy frowned. Pepper had warned him about a AI butler that ran the Tower, but he hadn't expected it to be so... British. And human-like. Tony addressed it like it was another person.

“I'm on top of this,” Tony told him, grinning.

Foggy rolled his eyes. He'd believe it when he saw it. “Claire, slide please.”

 

 

Foggy waited as the team read the ways they'd been dicks. He was pleased to note they all looked at least a little disappointed in themselves.

 

“I did not know that he could not play video games,” Thor offered. “I kept offering because I thought he was intimidated by my skill with the cars.”

Clint snickered. “Oh, I'm sure that isn't the case.”

Thor frowned and pondered that.

 

“Right, so movies. I know that descriptive video can sometimes be hilarious in all the wrong ways, but sometimes that makes the movie better. Matt can't see the screen, so all he gets is the audio. Have you ever tried just listening to an action movie? It's awful. Same with surveillance videos. Sometimes they don't even have audio, so it's like he's just standing there while you're watching. Driving, just... no. Please don't. We talked about Tony and the touchscreens. And just because Daredevil functions without a cane doesn't mean Matt should have to. Telling him he doesn't need his cane is a seriously dickish move. Don't. Next is restaurants and menus. Seriously guys?”

 

Clint frowned. “Have we even gone out to eat?”

“Italian,” Natasha told him. “After the robo-squids.”

The rest of the team made understanding noises.

Matt certainly hadn't mentioned those. Thankfully. Foggy would be have dreams of inky underwater death for days.

“He seemed fine though,” Bruce added.

“Did he order the same thing as one of you?”

Clint frowned. “Yeah, he got the same as me. He said it sounded good.”

Foggy sighed. “That's because he couldn't read the menu to know what was on it.”

Tony started to say something, but Steve cut him off. “Sorry, can we backtrack a bit? What's the issue with going out to eat?”

“There's nothing wrong with going out to eat. It's the way you did it. Did you or did you not, on the 27th of August, 2015, take Matt to a restaurant and have him use a normal menu?”

Tony opened his mouth, probably to protest, but Steve clamped a hand over it before he could say anything. “Yes, we did,” he agreed. “Matt never really explained to us that he was completely blind. He told us we was blind, but based on his skills, we assumed he still had partial vision.”

“Okay, even if he did have partial vision, which he doesn't, you could still ask him if he could read a normal menu or not.”

“He can read our mission notes with his fingers,” Clint piped in.

“Those are handwritten, right?”

Clint nodded.

“So with those he can feel the indents, especially if you write heavily. Most menus are laminated or printed by a special company, and he can't feel the text, let alone read it.”

Steve looked guilty. “He never told us.”

“Of course he wouldn't. He's an idiot,” Foggy scoffed.

“Isn't there some sort of assistive tech that could translate written text into braille?” Tony asked. “I mean, something handheld that does it almost instantly.”

Foggy shrugged. “If it exists, it's not widely known or affordable. Maybe both. It's more likely that it doesn't exist yet.”

“Yet,” Tony repeated. “Not yet.”

“Which brings us to our next slide. Claire?”

 

 

“Helpful tips on how not to be a dick. And look, you don't even have to get a movie with descriptive video. One of you can do it. Or all of you, although I feel like that would end badly.” He shrugged. “Matt seems to like my descriptions better than a lot of other ones. Oh, and Netflix has finally started to do descriptive video, after we threatened to sue them.”

Clint frowned. “Really?”

“Well, not quite. But we are lawyers. We could have done it.”

“You're defense attorneys,” Natasha pointed out.

Foggy pointed at her. “Shush.”

She shrugged.

“Braille menus, which we covered. Driving, not unless it's the end of the world, or will be if he doesn't drive.”

“Ragnarok?” Thor asked.

Foggy stared at him. “I have no idea what that means. If it's the end of the world, then yes. Tony is going to work on accessibility options and fix them all.”

Tony gave him a thumbs up.

“And guiding. Okay, this probably won't come up often, since he's fairly self sufficient. However, his senses can get overwhelmed in large crowds and chaotic situations. Because he gets around using a sort of radar, if his hearing is interfered with, he's not going to be able to navigate as well. If he has his cane, he can probably manage, but if he's out Daredevil-ing, it won't be as good. In that case, offer him your arm. Do not grab him by the arm and drag him around unless he's about to die. Like, piano falling on the head circumstances.”

Steve raised his hand again, but this time didn't wait for Foggy to give him the go ahead.

“And how exactly would we guide him?”

“Well, don't lead him into any doors or trees or anything like that. Let him know when there's a step up or down, when you're crossing the street, any obstacles in his path basically. Winter is bad because of ice, so be careful if you're fighting... I don't know, frost monsters or something.”

Thor frowned at that.

“As for expressions and gestures, he can sometimes tell what you're doing. Waving, yeah, shrugging, sometimes. Facial expressions are tricky unless he's really focusing, at least from what I understand. And for the love of god, he can't see colours. He can't see, period, so don't think that colours are somehow magically an exception. Also, he can't feel colours either. He might try to bullshit you into thinking he can, but don't actually believe him.”

Clint frowned. “He did try to insist my bow was purple.”

Natasha groaned. “That's because it is purple.”

“Nu-uh,” Clint shook his head.

“Clint, maybe this is a good time to remind you that you're colourblind,” Bruce offered.

“Oh. Right.”

 

Foggy rolled his eyes. “Whatever. And please, no blind justice jokes. He heard them all about a month into the first semester of law school, and they've just been getting worse since. Claire, next slide.”

 

 

“My elevator buttons don't need braille!” Tony protested. “Jarvis makes everything fully accessible!”

“What if someone can't hear him?” Foggy asked.

“Then they can see the buttons.”

Foggy sighed. “Blindness and deafness are not mutually exclusive. People can have both. What is Jarvis going to do then?”

Tony was quiet.

“And it is the law,” Foggy pointed out.

Tony sighed. “Fine, I'll add braille.”

“Good. Okay, so, make him go to medical if he's been hurt. He'll probably lie to your face, even if he's bleeding everywhere, but make him go anyway. If you need any help getting him to cooperate, both Claire and I are good at that.”

Claire waved at the Avengers. The Avengers waved back.

“Right. Sensitive to noises, we mentioned that. All of his senses are heightened, so things like touch, scent, taste. He says that cotton feels like sandpaper to him, and he can tell pretty much every ingredient that's in his food.”

“So much for my secret sauce,” Bruce sighed.

“He won't tell anyone,” Foggy assured him. “Which brings us back to his radar thing. I'm still not entirely sure how it works. I was a little drunk when he explained it to me the first time, and he hasn't been super chatty about it. Bottom line is that it's good for some things, useless for others. He is still blind. Really.”

He clapped his hands together. “Last slide please Claire.”

 

 

He smiled broadly at the table of Avengers. “Any questions?”

 

* * *

 

Foggy thanked Claire again before sending her back to her new apartment. He headed back to the office, where Matt and Karen were probably wondering where he was.

It was lunch, so Karen would be out picking up something, leaving Matt time to interrogate Foggy, who would of course fold at best two questions in.

At least Foggy knew that he was a bad liar, unlike Matt, who thought that his excuses were good ones.

 

“Where have you been Foggy?” Matt asked.

“I could ask you the same thing. Nice black eye.”

“Don't deflect. You've got a smug air about you. Where have you been?”

“I was just educating some people.”

“Oh really?”

“Really. What, Murdock, you don't think I've got it in me to educate other people?”

“Well, only on a small number of things. And I don't think the general population wants to be educated about law.”

Foggy rolled his eyes. “First, rude. I have lots of expertise in certain areas. Granted, they're areas no one cares about, but whatever. Second, it wasn't law. It was about you. I'm certainly an expert on you.”

Matt paused. “Foggy... who exactly were you educating about me?”

“Let's just say any team-ups will be more pleasant in the future.”

Matt raised an eyebrow. “Really? You lectured the Avengers?”

“I might have made a powerpoint,” he admitted.

Matt grinned at him. “Foggy Nelson, you are the best friend a guy could ask for.” He threw an arm over his shoulder.

“Damn right I am. I just lectured Captain America about how not to be a dick. Oh man, that's got to be un-American. Do you think they're going to revoke my citizenship or something?”

“Pretty sure they can't do that.”

“He's Captain America,” Foggy moaned. “He can do whatever he wants.”

“No, you're thinking about what Loki told Thor.”

Foggy only groaned.

 

* * *

 

Two weeks later, a package arrived at the office for Matt.

 

The box contained a small device with braille instructions.

“What is it?” Foggy asked.

“I think that it's a new invention,” Matt replied, sounding a bit shocked. “Did you mention something about a handheld character recognition device that can convert to braille?”

“Maybe?”

“Well that's what this is. It's kind of like my refreshable braille display in that it can display different text, but it's awesome because it can actually read text and instantly convert it to braille. It's genius.”

“Oh, that thing. Yeah, I might have mentioned it to Tony. And that fact that it sort of didn't exist.”

“Well it does now.” Matt beamed. “This is a test version. I'm supposed to work out what's good and what isn't, so he can adjust it and then mass produce it.”

“What a guy,” Foggy agreed.

“The instructions contain a sort of rambling note about how he plans to donate them to schools for the blind.”

“Oh. Actually a nice guy.”

“Yeah, but don't tell anyone. It would ruin his image.”

Foggy sighed. Of course.

 

There was also a card both in braille and text, which was probably for Foggy's benefit.

 

_Sorry we were dicks._

_Hopefully we're less dickish now._

_From the Avengers_

 

Everyone had signed it in pen, pressing hard so the indents could be felt even by Foggy's fingers.

Next to Tony's signature was also some slightly raised shapes. It took Foggy a minute to figure out what they actually made.

A dick.

 

He sighed, and wondered what Claire would think. She'd probably die laughing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing that Tony invents, as far as I can tell, has not yet been physically made. It's a definite possibility though. And if anyone could make it, it would be Tony.  
> http://walyou.com/haptic-braille-reader/
> 
> ALSO, sorry if the slides are too small to read. They are written out in the next chapter.


	2. Slide Text

The slides are all on a dark red background with a still image from the opening credits of Daredevil, featuring a blindfolded Lady Justice holding up her scales.

 

 

Slide 1: How NOT to be a Dick

An informative powerpoint by Franklin P Nelson

AKA Foggy

Matt's best friend since law school

 

Slide 2: How not to be a dick- an informative powerpoint for the Avengers

 

It has come to my attention that some of you have done some pretty dickish things when interacting with Matt. As someone who can be a dick on occasion, I understand that it happens. But it's been happening far too much, and you're hurting Matt.

(Not that he would ever say it. I just know.)

So. Here's how you can be less of a dick, and be a hell of a lot more welcoming to Matt. Who is blind. In case that was unclear. I'm clearing it up.

Don't be an ableist asshole.

 

Slide 3: Matt Murdock basics

 

  * stupidly selfless guy

  * defense attorney

  * completely fucking blind

  * good with kids

  * can't see anything

  * catholic

  * annoyingly smart

  * cannot drive or use touchscreens

  * like seriously, do you get it yet? He can't see. No light perception. Look it up.




 

Slide 4: Things that you guys have done that are dickish

 

  * watched movies without descriptive audio (especially things like surveillance videos that are important to whatever evil you're currently fighting. He won't say anything, but he wants to know what you're seeing. Just tell him dammit. It's not hard.)

  * invited him to play video games (he thinks you're teasing him)

  * told him to drive. Repeatedly. Do you know how badly that will end? I do. Don't do it.

  * Tony, stop giving Matt touchscreens if they don't have accessibility options turned on already. It's impossible to find the accessibility options without the accessibility options. Do you see the dilemma?

  * taken him out to restaurants and assumed he could read the menu. He can't. Come on guys he's blind.

  * insisted he go out without his cane, 'because he doesn't really need it anyway'




 

Slide 5: Future ways to not be as dickish

 

  * Descriptive video. A lot of movies now have it, and if you're watching a surveillance video, it's not hard to tell him what you're seeing.

  * Offer him braille options. Most restaurants have braille menus. Get one.

  * Do not have him drive. Like maybe if the world is ending, okay, because that's the only time you'll want to experience his driving. Seriously. That's how bad it is.

  * Accessibility options on tech. Tony, make them better. Make them easier to use. Voice controls are great, and don't require vision to find the accessibility options.

  * Sometimes he does need to be guided when it's really chaotic and overwhelming. Offer your arm. Do not take his. He'll let you know what he needs if you ask.

  * He can't see facial expressions, facial features, or colours. Stop describing people using them.

  * Stop with the blind justice jokes. I guarantee he has heard all of them before.




 

Slide 6: Other notes

 

  * Tony I swear to god if you don't have braille on your elevator by the end of the month I will sue your ass so hard that your iron man suits will crumple.

  * He just wants to be treated like a normal member of the team. Not that he is. Part of the team that is. Or normal, really. He's special. Don't ever forget that or I will hurt all of you.

  * Don't hurt him is what I'm saying.

  * Make him go to medical. He's a stubborn ass who won't admit when he's hurt.

  * He's sensitive to noises, especially high pitched ones.

  * He can't see (see slide 2 for more info) but he has the ability to make sense of his surroundings, kind of like radar. This does not mean he isn't blind. He is very blind.

  * This radar is good for some things (fighting, navigating), and does not work for others (text, screens, surfaces, colours)




 

Slide 7: That's it. Just remember, I am a lawyer and I will end you if it comes to that.

 


End file.
